Posts Tagged ‘Teams’

1. Strong fit in terms of personal and organisational values
2. You don’t have to micro manage people
3. People can distinguish between jobs and responsibilities
4. People deliver on commitments
5. People are passionate about the company and their work
6. People give credit to others

Bottom Line – Having the right team is vital to achieving success.  So how does your team measure up?

Effective teams and groups deliver more results quicker than any individual ever could.  So what do you need to do as a manager or leader to bring out the best in teams?

1. Give them a clear purpose

The best teams know why they exist and what issue or issues they are tackling.  In other words they have a very clear purpose.  If you want to get the best from teams give them a clear and unambiguous purpose.

2. Get the right people on the team

If teams are to prosper they need to have people on the team with the right mix of skills, knowledge and personal attributes to deliver results.  Ask yourself what’s missing on a team and then look for ways of getting people on the team to address these gaps.

3. Set expectations

You don’t want to micro manage teams but at the same time you need to be willing to set some expectations of the team.  These expectations will include areas such as what is to be delivered, ways of behaving and ways of interacting to name just a few.

4. Encourage innovation

Have you ever noticed that when you get a group of people together, whole range of ideas and possibilities are created?  Encourage teams to innovate and translate these ideas and possibilities into solutions that result in a step change in performance and results achieved.

5. Support risk taking

When teams are taking risk they are more than likely moving towards action.  Encourage and support teams to take balanced risks having weighed up the benefits and drawbacks.

Bottom Line – Bringing out the best in teams can lead to significant change in organisational performance.  So what do you need to do differently to bring out the best in your teams?

One of the biggest challenges you will face as a team leader is dealing with teams that are poorly performing or are considered to be low performance.  Low performance teams are often stuck, not delivering on key outcomes, operating in a culture of blame and may even be in denial.  So if you are the leader of a low performance team, what can you do about it?

Tip 1: Acknowledge performance issues

Too often, performance issues are swept under the carpet in the belief that they will go away.  The first step of addressing performance issues is to get them out in the open.  Create the opportunity for people to get all of their issues out in the open in a non judgemental way.

Tip 2: Identify some successes

No matter how it might seem to those in the team, there are likely to be successes being achieved day after day.  Get the team to start to recognise and write down the successes that has been achieved collectively.

Tip 3: Get the team to identify improvement ideas

If you have a team that is regarded as being low performance there is little benefit in trying to impose solutions on the team and expecting them to all of a sudden change.  Focus attention on getting the team to identify improvement ideas.

Tip 4: Create a space to deal with conflicts

Low performance teams can often have conflicts and as the team leader you need create space to deal with conflicts.  It can also be helpful to have a way of recognising when conflict is showing up.

Tip 5: Take small steps

If a team is low performance and wants to improve, it is important not to be over optimistic about the speed or way in which change can be made.  Get the team to take small steps and recognise the achievements and successes.

Bottom line- low performance teams can be tough to deal with and require a sensitive and structured approach from you as the leader.  So what will you start doing differently?

When working with groups on team working, one of the questions I ask is

” What are the success ingredients of great teams?”

Almost without exception, one of the first things on the list is having a clear goal.

When you have a clear goal that you can articulate and is understood by everyone in the team, the team has focus.  They know what they are trying to achieve and the goal mobilises them towards achievement.

If you lead a team, how clear are your goals? 

If they are unclear or are not compelling enough, what could you do to address this?

Bottom Line – If you want a team to deliver, make sure the result is crystal clear.

Leaders’ priority is to deliver results.  When leaders deliver results they create success for the organisation’s they lead which leads to more personal success.  While leaders deliver results those leaders that are truly successful recognise that creating and building teams are critical to their success.   So why are teams so critical to your success as a leader?

Only one of you

As a leader you are probably extremely good at what you do and highly capable.  After all you would not have achieved the success you have so far unless you were good.  That said, there is only one of you and you have finite amount of time.  24 hours a day, 168 hours in a week, and 744 hours in a month is what you have no matter how great a leader you are.  With this limit in time, there is a limit on what you can get done on your own.

Skills, knowledge, experience and expertise

Teams bring a much greater of range skills, knowledge, experience and expertise than any one leader could ever have.  Think about it.  Every Managing Director or CEO started out their business career in a particular discipline.  It might have been marketing, sales, finance, operations or human resources to name just a few.  They started out experts and became generalists and more rounded.  At the same time they recognise that they can never be experts in every area of business so they build teams with complimentary skills, knowledge, experience and expertise.

Creativity

You might be a highly creative person. Imagine having 5 or 10 other creative people contributing ideas, knowledge and enthusiasm into creating a compelling vision for the organisation.  How much richer would the final product or output be in this situation?  Leaders who achieve success know that much more can be created through teams working together than working on their own.

So teams maximise the possibilities and achievements but what can leaders do to leverage the benefits of teams and achieve success:

1. Know what you are brilliant at

2. Be aware of the gaps in your skills, knowledge, experience and expertise

3. Make sure that your teams are full of people with complimentary skills, knowledge, experience and expertise

4. Make recruitment a priority area in your business so that you attract and recruit the best people

Bottom line – The best leaders know that teams are critical to their success.  So what steps are you going to take to be an even more successful leader?

A team as a collective can deliver much greater results than any one individual could.  A key component in any team is the leadership of the team.  So what are my 7 key tips when it comes to leading teams?

Tip 1:  Have a clear vision

If you don’t know where you are heading, how will you know when you have got to the destination?  Put differently, it is essential that you create a clear vision of what you want the team to achieve so that it can be understood by everyone.

Tip 2: Learn to be a great listener

You are the leader and have many ideas, views, opinions and solutions.  Your team know that this but also want to be able to offer their views and feel like they have been heard. A good leader recognises this and focuses most of their communication on listening.

Tip 3:  Be someone who takes decisions

As a leader you need to weigh up the upside and downside of any particular option and then decide.  Team members may not always support your decisions 100% or may not have taken the exactly the same decision.  On they other hand they will respect you for not procrastinating.

Tip 4:  Empower your team 

One of the big advantages of a team is the range and variety of skills and experience that is available.  You know what you are good at and not so good at, so empower those to do what they do best.

Tip 5:  Encourage participation

In any team there will be those who are vocal and those who will be quieter.  Your role as a leader is to encourage the full range of contributions and encourage the introverts who make great contributions to get their point across.

Tip 6: Be a role model

One of the best ways to show how you want others to act, behave and interact is to show them.  By being a role model you encourage others to follow your lead.

Tip 7:  Know your team limits

Within any team there will be a range of skills and abilities.  If you are to lead effectively you need to understand the limits of all team members.

Bottom Line – Leading a team is a challenge but by doing some simple things you can become a highly effective team leader.  So what’s your first step in becoming a highly effective team leader?

One of the great benefits of a team is the range of skills, knowledge, experience and personal attributes that they can draw on to address a problem or issue.  On the other hand, the full potential of this diverse range of expertise is often not fully exploited.  This might be due to one or more of the following factors:

• People don’t fully appreciate what others are good at

• People make assumptions about what people can or cannot do rather than finding out

• People think and maybe even believe that they are masters at everything

• People don’t like acknowledging that they are not great at some things for fear of losing face or worrying how it will change others perceptions of them

As the leader of the team your job is to make sure that you get each and every one of your team members performing at their optimal level, so take the time and make the effort to discover and exploit the strengths of your team members.

When leading workshops, training or speaking about teams, I often get people to think about what the key characteristics are of the best teams.

Without exception, having a common goal is one of the first things that people tend to highlight. So why are goals seen as so powerful when it comes to team working?

Firstly a goal gives everyone a clear and specific outcome to aim for.  The team knows what is trying to deliver and has a clear direction of travel.

Secondly, delivering the goal, especially if it is going to make a big difference to a number of stakeholders becomes a huge desire for those in the team.  This desire drives the team on, even when things are tough.

Thirdly a common goal breaks down the barriers of which function or specialism people work in and shifts the attention to delivering the result.

We all know that teams have huge potential to deliver great results.  How has the existence or lack of a goal impacted on the results your team delivers?

Highly effective teams can achieve extraordinary results for the organisations that they serve.  Achieving success for the organisation leads to greater personal success, and achievement.  Yet in truth, team success is not guaranteed.  So what are 5 common barriers to team success and what can you do to avoid them?

Barrier 1: Fuzzy outcomes

If a team is to prosper and deliver results, it needs to be crystal clear about the results or outcomes that are expected to be delivered by the team.  Too often teams are set outcomes that are fuzzy and vague which unsurprisingly leads to little in terms of results.  Make the outcomes specific and measurable.  For example, reduce waste from product X by 10% by 31 December 2008 is both specific and measurable.

Barrier 2: Unproductive conflict

All successful teams need to have challenge and conflict otherwise it all becomes too cosy.  On the other hand, it is important to ensure that conflict is productive rather than destructive or unproductive.  Lively and heated debate that actually results in a better outcome or solution is an example of productive conflict.  Challenge that focuses on all of the negatives without offering any alternatives is unproductive.

Barrier 3: Playing it safe

Making a step change in performance or turning things round requires teams and team members to take some risk and step out of their comfort zone.  This will only happen if the culture within the organisation supports and rewards this type of innovative and balanced risk taking approach.  For example, if the culture is to look for scapegoats when things go wrong, people will keep within the safety boundaries rather than taking a chance.

Barrier 4: Individual agendas

If a team is to prosper, all members need to sign up to and be committed to the team goals first foremost.  For many this is particularly challenging as in business, we are used to being concerned about our own individual situation.  Creating a reward system that relies on the group can be a useful stepping stone to encouraging teams to focus on the team agenda.

Barrier 5: Leadership

In teams someone has to take on the role of the leader.  A team without a leader is like a ship without a captain.  The team might select a leader or as the team develops someone may emerge who is the natural leader.  However, any successful team needs a leader.

Bottom Line – Teams can achieve great results but it is essential that the barriers to team success are identified and addressed.  So what barriers are getting in the way of your teams success?

In all walks of life teams exist to get results.  Getting results depends on teams being both productive and positive.  Teams can be highly productive running at 100 miles an hour but have low levels of morale.  On the flip side they might be highly optimistic but never get anything done.  So what are essential ingredients of highly productive and highly positive teams?

Set clear goals

If teams are to be productive, they need to know where they are heading and what they are going to deliver.  In other word they need to have absolute clarity on their goals.

Common mission

Teams need to be aiming in the same direction, working together towards a common vision or mission.  Without this they are merely a collection of individuals who will pursue what is right for them personally.

Create accountability

When a team needs to account for what it has achieved and what it has not, there is a greater likelihood of achievement rather than below optimal performance.  Accountability is not something that is viewed as negative but a means of staying on track.

Secure resources

Resources (manpower, money and materials) are another ingredient in productive teams.  The resources (whatever they are) once secured need to be used effectively.

Make effective decisions

Highly productive teams take decisions, avoid procrastinating and get things done.  Effective decision making does not happen by chance.  A decision making process is essential.

Encourage proactiviness

Being proactive is about looking out for opportunities to change, develop and improve and then acting swiftly to exploit those opportunities.  Being proactive is about anticipating and thinking outside of the boundaries.

Effective leadership

Effective leadership is core to any team that gets results whether it is in business, communities or sports. 

Be optimistic

People can generally fall into the glass half full or glass half empty category.  The glass half full are the optimists, the glass half empty are the pessimists.  Which group do you think achieves more?

Build trust

Trust is about creating an environment where people can speak openly and objectively without fear.  Trust comes from knowing that others can be counted on, even when the going gets tough.

Respect each other

Respecting each other is not about agreeing with everyone or liking every one.  It is about being willing to listen, understand different points of view and respecting those differing views.

Effective communication

The best teams communicate clearly, avoid ambiguity and see listening as just as important as speaking.

Welcome conflict

No matter how well a team works together, conflict will arise from time to time.  It is how it is dealt with that really matters.  Utilised effectively it can unleash creativity, open new possibilities and contribute to development and growth.

Create sense of belonging

Camaraderie is extremely powerful, especially when the going gets tough.  The best teams work on creating and maintaining that camaraderie.

Value diversity

We are all different.  We all have different personalities, backgrounds, experiences, ways of looking at things and approaching things.  Valuing that diversity gives teams much greater range and helps that to get better results.

At the end of the day teams exist to get results.  So what will you do to develop your team and get even better results in 2009?